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tate power company PT PLN predicted that the country’s electricity consumption between Christmas and New Year’s would decline by between 10 and 15 percent from average work day consumption.

During this period, most industries and offices which constitute country’s largest electricity consumers closed their operations, said Bambang Dwiyanto, PLN senior manager for corporate communication.

“With that condition, there will be no disturbance in the electricity supply for three days before Christmas until seven days after the New Year because the capacity of our power plants is still above the peak burden,” he explained in a press statement on Friday.

According to the company’s data, the maximum capacity of the Java-Bali grid system is 21,257 megawatts (MW) while the peak load is predicted to be only 16,150 MW over the two days. In western Indonesia, the maximum capacity is 4,602 MW, while the consumption is estimated to only hit 4,299 MW.

For eastern Indonesia, the installed capacity of the grid system is 2,603 MW, while the peak burden is expected to be 2,484 MW. Thus, for the whole Indonesia, the capacity is 28,462 MW and the peak burden nationwide is predicted to reach only 22,933 MW. Bambang reported that this year, the average peak burden reached 19,739 MW in Java-Bali, jumping 9.7 percent from last year. In the afternoon, consumption hit 18,398 MW.

Still in Java-Bali, for New Year’s Eve, PLN estimated that the peak burden will occur at 7 p.m. (Jakarta time) with 16,500 MW. On Jan. 1, 2012, the burden is predicted to fall to 14,910 MW at the same hour, while in the afternoon, the electricity consumption is expected to only touch 10,673.

In the whole year of 2012, PLN forecasts that the consumption in Java-Bali will reach 20,775 MW, growing 5.2 percent from this year.

PLN president director Nur Pamudji told The Jakarta Post in an exclusive interview session recently that in 2012, his company would achieve three important milestones.

The first milestones is for the first time, PLN will utilize liquefied natural gas (LNG) in its electricity system with the presence of a floating storage and re-gasification unit in Jakarta Bay. The gas will be channeled to the Muara Karang and Tanjung Priok power plants which currently have to burn expensive oil-based fuels due to gas shortage problems.

The second milestone is that almost all power plants included into the first phase of the 10,000 MW fast-track program in Java will kick off commercial operations, Pamudji revealed. The final milestone is that PLN aimed to increase the number of pre-paid electricity customers to 5 million in 2012.

The company also promised to increase the utilization of coal to 51 percent of its total primary energy consumption next year.